


Demon's Tree

by Hnybnny



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-08
Updated: 2013-11-08
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:44:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6658219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hnybnny/pseuds/Hnybnny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aegthisia. A world of dwarves, demons, dragons, and the occasional cyborg. The land has lived in peaceful separation for millennium, with most of the population of each major race residing in their respective region.</p>
<p>And then there's the Outcasts. The criminals, the cursed, the troubled, and the mutated. They have lived in angry silence since the beginning of time. But that is changing. More and more of the once segregated populations are intermingling, and towns of different races are sprouting up. The Outcasts are getting louder. No longer will they be chained by their physical features, their abilities, or their pasts. They are rising up, and revolution is swiftly approaching. The other races do not know what to do, a deep fear of the scarcely seen mutants shifting in the hearts of all. </p>
<p>But that's not the greatest trouble the land of Aegthisia is hiding from. For a greater evil lurks, drawn out by hunger that had gone ignored for far too long, and the smell of blood spilled is far too tempting...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Demon's Tree

**Author's Note:**

> An old work of mine that I wrote for Nanowrimo, but unfortunately, I only got to the first chapter.

The first of the sun's rays stretched over the horizon, landing on a sea of emerald that populated most of the tranquil forest canopy. The dew laden leaves glistened in the morning light, and far down below the jungle was beginning to stir. A small bird hopped from branch to branch, and then began crowing loudly.

  
“Shut up, you friggin' bird” A voice angrily yelled from the foliage, breaking the peaceful silence of the morning. A a sharp rock sailed by, narrowly missing the bird and sending it flurrying upwards in fear.  
The source of the projectile was a dark-skinned woman dressed in crimson PJ's, frowning and peering out a window of a wooden room resting on a thick branch of a titanic tree that stretched high above the clouds. Numerous walkways were suspended by rope to the branches above, and went to other rooms and buildings that were attached to other large limbs, that spiraled up and around the gigantic tree that seemed to have no upwards ending.

  
“Child, are you threatening the wildlife again?” A female elf questioned from the opposite side of the room. Her light brown hair reached down to her middle, and she was clad in a forest-green bodice, with a skirt of lime green and a dark olive over-skirt. A pale brown sash was tied around her waist, and on her arms were two leather braces, intertwined with runes of a long-dead culture. The elf was reclining on a wooden bench, peering at the words of a dusty tomb.

  
“Maybe.” The other woman retorted, twisting her wavy ebony hair around her finger, leaning up against the window.

  
“Well, please cease and desist, Jordyn.” She replied, not looking up from her book.

  
“Yes, Mother,” said Jordyn sarcastically.

  
The elf turned her gaze upwards, and her ears turned downwards in distaste. “You're rather old to be calling me that.”

  
“Sorry, Inwe.” Her daughter muttered, and busied herself in the kitchen, which was the room the two were situated in.

  
Inwe smiled, and looked back at her book.

  
Jordyn quickly whisked the eggs she was preparing, and looked over at Inwe. She made to ask her if she wanted anything, but shut her mouth. The elf looked pretty involved in the book. Turning back, she sprinkled some pepper and salt into the mixture, and poured it onto a hot skillet. The woman's stomach grumbled as the food sizzled and bubbled. She left the eggs to cook a bit, and walked to the window.  
“Are you ever going to change?” Inwe called to her.

  
“Maybe.” The woman said simply.

  
“You say that quite a bit.”

  
“How can one ever be certain of anything?”

  
Inwe laughed at this. “I believe it was I who said that?”

  
Jordyn clicked her tongue in her sign of 'yes', and walked over to the window. The bird that she had attacked earlier was back, perched on a branch right outside. Leaning on the frame, Jordyn glared at the bird. “Go away.”  
The bird was silent, and instead cocked its head at her.

  
“Idiot.”  
Jordyn held the bird's gaze for a few more moments, when something else on the branch caught her eye. Or rather, something with the branch.

  
It looked like it was rotting. The bark on the spot had peeled away, revealing that the once bright wood beneath had darkened and taken on a sickly blackish hue. It was dotted with ugly mustard colored marks, and as Jordyn looked, a small bug she had never seen before crawled out of a small hole in the wood and was immediately picked up by the bird's sharp beak and gulped down.

  
“Disgusting...” Jordyn muttered, and glanced over at Inwe. The elf had her nose buried in the tome, and was fully ignoring her. She decided not to bother the nature-loving elf with the state of the branch. Probably the tree was just molting. If trees could molt... Jordyn didn't really know, and honestly she couldn't give less of a damn about what trees could and could not do. She left that knowledge stuff to her mother most of the time.  
Inwe wasn't her real mother though. It would be weird if she was, and kind of impossible. Last time Jordyn checked (which was at least 10 years ago) elves didn't have human children. And who would her father be anyways? Inwe didn't have a partner, or a love interest. As far as she knew, Inwe had never even been in a relationship. Jordyn was actually just Inwe's adopted daughter. Jordyn never knew who her real parents were, and neither did her mother. Inwe's story was rather simple. The elf was riding through Idyll, and as she came upon the border of Khalia, she heard a young child crying. Idyll was the land of paradise in Aegthisia, the place where all adventurers yearned to discover. However, no mortal or immortal could find it, unless the Keeper wished it to be found. On the flip side, Khalia was a desolate region. It was inhabited by the outcasts, mutants, and irredeemable sinners of Aegthisia. Parents would tell their children that they must be good, or the Council would cast them into Khalia, never to return to their family. Anyways, her mother saw Jordyn. Jordyn was young , not much older than a newborn. She was swaddled in a pure white blanket, that was dotted with crimson blood. The blood was not the child's, and the only thing on her person was a small necklace inscribed in an ancient scrawl that simply read 'Jordyn', and Inwe took that as her name.. Jordyn was placed in a small wicker basket, placed right up against the invisible line marking paradise from living hell, on the side of Khalia. Feeling a wash of pity for the child, the elf claimed the orphan as her own and took her home, and that was that.

  
Jordyn sighed and rested her chin on her hand. She had often sat on the tree's branches overlooking the forest canopy, staring at the stars and wondered where she came from, who she really was. All she had arrived with was a wicker basket, a blanket, and her name. If it even was her name...

  
A sudden chime snapped her out of her stupor. Inwe had gotten up and walked over to the source of the noise, which was one of the looking glasses, a bowl of water that was infused with a touch of magic. It was how Inwe communicated with others, and she had forbidden Jordyn from ever using it.

  
As soon as the girl had been able to walk, she always got into things. And as soon as she could reach table level, Inwe had forbidden her from ever looking or touching any of the looking glasses for obvious reasons. Being the rebel she was, Jordyn promptly ignored her. One day when the elf was off doing elven things, Jordyn pulled up a kitchen chair to the table with one of the bowls and looked inside. It was just a plain bowl of water. She willed it and willed it to do something, when eventually, it chimed! She had gazed deeply, and suddenly, a horrific image of a battle-scarred man appeared and startled Jordyn so bad she fell off the chair and sprained her wrist. Inwe heard her crying from far away and came running, having to hastily explain to the man, an old friend of hers, that Jordyn wasn't supposed to be looking there, she was very sorry, it wouldn't happen again. The man was amused and not angry in the slightest, and he and Inwe got a rather good laugh out of the situation. Poor Jordyn, however, was so embarrassed and scared that she never even thought of looking into that water again.

  
“Such short notice, _mellon_.”

  
Jordyn glanced over at Inwe, listening in on her conversation. Unfortunately, she could only hear Inwe's side of it, since she was at the other side of the kitchen.

  
“Jordyn! The eggs!”

  
The sudden exclamation from the elf startled Jordyn, and she noticed the eggs were smoking. Cursing loudly, she grabbed the pan and doused it in a nearby vat of water used for cooking. Sighing at the steam that rose up from the cooled pan and warm water, she leaned back against the cupboard and smiled at herself. “Crisis adverted...”

  
“Oh, that was just the mortal...”

  
Jordyn's head snapped back at this. “Ex-cuuuuse me? Who you callin' mortal?”

  
Inwe let out an exasperated sigh and turned towards Jordyn. “You know I do not mean it as derogatory.”

  
“Suuuuure you don't.”

  
Inwe motioned at the bowl. “I am trying to have a conversation, And you are not making this any easier.”

  
Jordyn huffed loudly, and made a show of storming out of the room and onto the eastern walkway. The cold dew-soaked wood made her feet hurt like hell, and she half hopped, half ran to her bedroom a couple of branches up.

  
Slamming the mahogany door behind her, she flopped down on her crimson rug, laying on her back and gazing up at the roof. She should probably get dressed. But the carpet was so soft and fluffy and inviting... I could marry this carpet, though Jordyn to herself, but the question was, is that even legal? How could she tell Inwe... “Mom, I've gotta tell you something... I'm carpetsexual.” “The Bible says Adam and Eve, not Adam and Plush!” The whole thought of it made Jordyn giddy, and she broke out in hysterical giggles. Eventually she calmed down, and stood up, stretching. She patted the rug with a hand. “I'll be back for you, my love...” Chuckling again, she strode over to her extensive closet and wondered what to wear.

  
Jordyn was big on fashion. There wasn't really a style in Idyll, since there really weren’t any people. But Jordyn honestly didn't care. She wore whatever she thought made her look best, while still being comfortable of course! She had a motto; if you can't break a spine while wearing it, then don't friggin' wear it.

  
The woman began to sing softly, as she ruffled through the clothes racks. “Are you, are you, coming to the tree...” She eventually pulled out a dirt-brown tunic with a hood “They strung up a man, they say he murdered three.” Grabbing a pair of trousers that had been ripped and patched many times over , she pulled them on, “Strange things did happen here, no stranger would it be;” Jordyn spun around her room as she ran a brush through her hair, it laying near-perfectly across her shoulders and back, or so she thought. “If we met at midnight in the hanging tree!” Finishing the tune, she picked up a pair of leather boots, tugging them on as she sat on the edge of her bed. Standing up, she applied some makeup and then stopped. She had forgotten something. Something so, so very important.

  
“My sunglasses!”  
Jordyn dashed over to her dressing table and snatched her precious sunglasses, putting them on with a flourish. They were not too big, and had maroon colored framing around the sides and bottom, but the top of unframed, allowing her to see over the glasses quite easily.

  
Posing in front of mirror, she winked saucily at her reflection. She looked fantastic right now. Oh, who was she kidding! Jordyn Ancalimë was always fantastic! Hell, if you looked in a dictionary under the words fantastic and fabulous, you would see pictures of this smokin' hot babe. Flashing another smile at the mirror, Jordyn dashed out her bedroom door, down the walkway, across the planked bridge, and back into the kitchen. To her surprise, Inwe was nowhere to be found. The looking bowl was still and silent, the water as smooth as glass.

  
“Huh.” Jordyn muttered. She was probably on the forest floor, waiting for her. Inwe was patient, she could wait a little longer. Jordyn grinned and grabbed a couple more eggs from the fridge.

  
After she finished eating and cleaned up her mess (so Inwe wouldn't nag on her later), Jordyn made her way down the winding main staircase that threaded down the trunk of the large tree. She jumped the last couple of the steps to the grassy ground, and looked for Inwe. The elf was leaning up against a tree a couple meters away, two horses idling next to her. Jordyn strutted over to her, asking “So, where are we going?”

  
Inwe took a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh. “Council meeting.”

  
“Council meeting? What?! The Council wasn't supposed to meet for another, I dunno, YEAR!” Jordyn exclaimed, her voice rising.

  
Inwe sighed. “Yes, Child, I know. But apparently it is an emergency. As in, 'we must be there in Rayton by end of the week' level emergency.”

 

Jordyn pouted and crossed her arms. “Well, what's it about? Better be somethin' important.”

  
“They did not tell me.”

  
“That's dumb.”

  
“Perhaps.”

  
Groaning, Jordyn walked over to her horse. She was a medium sized Percheron, around 16 hands in height. She was colored a pure black, and her mane was sleek and clean. “Hey girl...” Jordyn murmered, as the horse nuzzled her cheek. “How ya doin', Mirabelle?” The horse neighed in response, and Jordyn laughed. “Good, good.”

  
“Hurry up, we are wasting daylight.” Inwe called to her. The elf was already seated upon her horse, sideways. Her horse was a large male Clydesdale, easily over 18 hands tall and a light chesnut color, with snow-white feathering and ivory markings on his face and neck.

  
“Sorry” Jordyn replied, and with a hop, swung herself up onto her horse.

  
“ _Asca_ , Hiramar!” Inwe commanded in elvish, and the horse trotted forwards. Mirabelle followed behind Hiramar, and the pair and their horses started through the vast greenery.


End file.
